


Setting The Stage

by chelseyelric



Category: Onward (2020)
Genre: F/M, Inspired by Ookami Kodomo no Ame to Yuki | The Wolf Children Ame and Yuki, Wilden dies, Wolf Children AU, prelude to future story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-05
Updated: 2020-05-05
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:15:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24022714
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chelseyelric/pseuds/chelseyelric
Summary: Inspired by Wolf Children, this is a prelude for a future story that I'll be writing. That story will focus on Barley and Ian but this stand-alone chapter focuses on their parents and sets the stage for a general (Were)wolf AU.(The future fic will ship Barlian, though this fic has no mention of that. Even if you don't ship it, please feel free to build your own non-ship or other ship fics and ideas from this chapter :) This is, first and foremost, meant to inspire!)
Relationships: Laurel Lightfoot/Wilden Lightfoot
Comments: 1
Kudos: 6





	Setting The Stage

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! I'm really excited to finally be getting this out there as an idea for an Onward AU! This first chapter is basically Wolf Children changed to fit within The Onward Universe. 
> 
> As stated in the summary, this will be the intro to my own Barlian fic but I won't be linking it from here when it's done. This will be a stand alone prelude fic. I'd like all Onward fans, Barlian shippers and non, to enjoy this fic and create their own ideas for this AU.
> 
> Please enjoy, everyone! Feel free to leave a comment at the end! <3

This is the story of two elves: Laurel and Wilden.

Laurel was a new student when she first saw him at New Mushroomton University. On that day, he didn’t bring anything but paper and a pencil to class. But he was diligently writing the entire time.  
He looked completely different from the other students, though Laurel couldn’t quite place why.

She tried to help him, to give him advice on the class but he was bristly and distant. Not exactly rude but he obviously didn’t want to talk. He missed the next few classes and Laurel worried about the mysterious man until she met him again, out in town.

His name was Wilden and he told her he wasn’t going to be returning because he wasn’t an enrolled student, that working was more important. It seemed he hoped that that would be the end of it, but that didn’t deter Laurel. She offered to meet and teach him what she learned between her own part time jobs.

He reluctantly agreed. Soon, the questions they both asked when they met became more and more personal and less and less about academia. 

An unlikely romance formed. 

-

Wilden admitted, one afternoon, that he’d never had a place he could call home. That he’d always dreamed of such a thing. A place he could completely be himself. Laurel admitted she’d dreamed of the same but with only Wilden. He was the first one, since her family, that ever made her feel that way.  
They both fell deeper in love that day.

The next time they were meant to meet, Wilden was late. So very late. Late enough that the shops closed and Laurel had to sit waiting for him outside. But she did it gladly.

Wilden apologized when he made it there. Of course he did, because he was kind. And then, as they walked together, he explained.

He knew it was time to share a secret, something he’d never told another soul and he’d been afraid, so afraid. He wanted to tell her, to trust her. He’d grappled with it all those hours and, at that moment, he was finally ready to tell her. To show her, right there on the edge of the woods he’d brought her to, just what he’d always hidden.

But, first, he had Laurel close her eyes.

The scent of barley was heavy in the air, the wind bringing it from a nearby field and it calmed them both. When she opened her eyes, he transformed before her, from the handsome elf she’d known all this time into something different and new: a being somewhere between elf and wolf. And yet, it was still undeniably Wilden.

He braced himself for her rejection and horror but it never came. She simply smiled and asked if she could hold him.

They both trembled in that barley scented air, in each other’s arms, and professed their undying love. Neither felt alone anymore.

-

From their love came their firstborn son, delivered in their tiny apartment. They handled it all alone. They didn’t want to risk their baby transforming into a wolf in a doctor’s arms.

It was snowing that day but all they could think about was the turning point in their lives. In the woods with the barley scented air.

They named him Barley.

Wilden whispered his hopes for his child’s future long into the night and thanked whatever god or being that would listen that he’d been born healthy. That his pup and his beautiful mate were safe.

He left for a short while. To hunt for his family, he’d said. He soon returned with enough rabbit for two weeks.

-

Wilden’s father was a descendant of a breed of wolf that’d been believed extinct hundreds of years prior. He was the last to inherit the blood of both elf and wolf. Until Barley, that is.

Wilden’s parents had taught him about their history when he was still young, about the old ways of surviving, and Wilden did the same with his son. The only difference between himself and his parents was how he told Barley to be wary of others. His own parents had told him to never trust anyone with who he really was under any circumstances. To essentially grow old alone to stay safe. It had served him well as he’d grown but now, here with his family, he knew they’d been wrong. Wilden told Barley that he could tell someone who he thought was special, different than the rest of the world. Who truly loved him. 

At the time, Barley nodded his head, naive in life and not quite understanding what his father meant by that.

For three years, their small family lived together, happy in that little apartment with Wilden teaching Barley in the woods nearby. They were even happier when Laurel became pregnant again. Their family due to become just that much bigger and filled with more love by Spring.

-

It was a rainy day when their second son was born and, just like with Barley, it had been in their apartment, without complications. Wilden’s urge to hunt for his family struck him again and Barley insisted on going along.

An hour passed. Then three. Then five.

Laurel’s nerves grew more and more with each passing second and, finally, she couldn’t stand to wait anymore.

She bundled up her newborn, (Ian, she’d like to call him, after her father,) and went out in search of her other family. She was all but ready to return home and wait again when she saw something from the bridge where she stood: a wolf, unmoving in the middle of the road. 

Laurel dropped her umbrella, bracing Ian closer as she ran to Wilden but a street crew was already in the process of tossing his lifeless body into their cleanup truck. As they drove away, Laurel sobbed, loud, long and deep, drawing eyes and whispers. The only thing that registered to her was her infant son, eventually crying louder than herself. Ian needed to eat but her mind was racing. 

Where had Barley gone?

**Author's Note:**

> So? What did you think? Please let me know and thank you so much for reading! XD


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